Feb 28th - Mar 2 2017
Days 110-112 since the election and days 40-42 since he is in office.
The SOTU address on 2-28-17 was exactly the clusterfuck you expect it to be.
Here are the five worst moments from the rich asshole’s so-called ‘presidential’ speech
President some rich asshole speaking to a joint session of Congress (Screencapture)
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Six weeks of snarling demagoguery and bumbling incompetence established a low bar for some rich asshole’s address to Congress on Tuesday night, and he cleared it.
He read the text on his prompter smoothly and didn’t mention millions of illegal voters going for Hillary Clinton or harp on his margin of victory in the Electoral College (he did call his election an “earthquake”). His only criticism of the media was a glancing one – a rather silly lie about their supposed refusal to cover crimes committed by undocumented immigrants. He even kicked off the evening by condemning a recent wave of anti-Semitic attacks on graveyards and bomb threats against Jewish Community Centers across the country. That part felt more forced than forceful – which makes sense given that earlier in the day he’d implied that they might be false flag operations perpetrated by Jews to make the rich asshole Supporters look bad – but he held it all together enough to make the pundits happy. CNN commentator Van Jones said the rich asshole “became President of the United States” last night.
the rich asshole’s strategy was transparent: He started out with a few minutes playing a statesman on TV, and then went into his usual campaign mode, with perhaps just a bit more polish than he displayed in his freewheeling stump speeches. But first and foremost, he avoided offering any details for his grand pronouncements and shied away from anything that even approached a concrete policy proposal.
The vague policy outlines he served up were, as The Washington Post described them, “a different tone but the same message.” But the rich asshole can always surprise, and there were a few moments that stood out for the sheer chutzpah required to deliver them. Here are five.
The Evening’s Big Moment
Van Jones was gushing over the moment when the rich asshole pointed to the weeping widow of Navy SEAL William “Ryan” Owens, the first soldier killed under his command, and then proceeded to declare the mission a success. Carryn Owens stole viewers hearts, but it took some serious balls for the rich asshole to use her as a prop when earlier that day he had blamed military commanders for Ryan’s death, defense officials had said no valuable intelligence was collected in the raid and just two days earlier, Owens’ father, Bill, had accused the rich asshole of “hiding behind” his son’s death.
The raid, which Obama had declined to sign off on prior to leaving the White House, was approved by the rich asshole despite what officials told Reuters was a lack of “sufficient intelligence, ground support or adequate backup preparations.” The special operations force missed its prime target – who later took to social media to mock “the fool of the White House” — but killed 30 civilians, including 14 children, one of whom was a US citizen. They also lost a $75 million helicopter. Several counter-terror experts told Vice that the clusterfuck “will almost certainly undermine U.S. counterterror efforts in the conflict-ridden country,” but on Tuesday the rich asshole had the nerve to characterize it as “a highly successful raid that generated large amounts of vital intelligence that will lead to many more victories in the future against our enemies.”
The Really Fascisty Bit
Studies consistently show that immigrants commit crimes at a lower rate than the native-born. As the WaPo’s fact-checker pointed out, “Immigration and crime levels have had inverse trajectories since the 1990s: immigration has increased, while crime has decreased. Some experts say the influx of immigrants contributed to the decrease in crime rates, by increasing the denominator while not adding significantly to the numerator.”
But as Stanford University political scientist Larry Diamond has noted, “Grossly exaggerating the extent of crime and terrorism is a common tactic of leaders seeking to justify a slide toward authoritarianism.” And so the rich asshole announced on Tuesday that he had “ordered the Department of Homeland Security to create an office to serve American Victims. The office is called VOICE — Victims Of Immigration Crime Engagement. We are providing a voice to those who have been ignored by our media, and silenced by special interests.” It’s pure demagoguery – right down to the rather bizarre idea that “special interests” are somehow silencing these poor victims. Earlier reports suggested that this office would publish a list of immigrants who are arrested for crimes, a tactic popular with fringe anti-immigrant blogs and familiar to various authoritarian regimes in the past.
That Time the rich asshole Invented Peanut Butter
It’s normal for presidents to take credit for good economic news during their administrations, and to blame their predecessors for leaving them with a mess. But just six weeks into the job, this litany of achievements could only be offered with a straight face by a serious narcissist:
It’s been a little over a month since my inauguration, and I want to take this moment to update the nation on the progress I’ve made in keeping those promises. Since my election, Ford, Fiat-Chrysler, General Motors, Sprint, Softbank, Lockheed, Intel, Walmart and many others have announced that they will invest billions and billions of dollars in the United States and will create tens of thousands of new American jobs. The stock market has gained almost $3 trillion in value since the election on Nov. 8, a record. We’ve saved taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars by bringing down the price of fantastic — and it is a fantastic — new F-35 jet fighter, and we’ll be saving billions more on contracts all across our government.
As The Washington Post pointed out, all of those companies had made those plans prior to the rich asshole’s election, and Lockheed announced the drop in price for the F-35 fighter before the rich asshole was involved.
The stock markets have gained $3 trillion since the rich asshole’s inauguration, but that was a rebound from the $3 trillion sell-off nervous investors had undertaken in the weeks leading up to it.
An Alternate Universe
It was nothing new – in fact, it’s a ubiquitous talking-point on the right – but we should note just how utterly divorced from reality the rich asshole’s claims about immigration enforcement and the border really were. He said that “we’ve defended the borders of other nations while leaving our own borders wide open for anyone to cross,” claimed that he had ”answered the pleas of the American people for immigration enforcement and border security” and promised to “finally enforce[e] our immigration laws.”
The truth is that the federal government prosecutes more individuals for immigration-related offenses than all other categories combined. Congress has increased spending on border security by 1,450 percent over the past two decades. The number of Border Patrol agents along the southern border rose from fewer than 3,500 in 1993 to over 18,000 in 2013, and the U.S. now spends $18 billion annually on an alphabet soup of immigration enforcement agencies. In 2012, a report by the Migration Policy Institute estimated that immigration-related law enforcement was “approximately 24 percent higher than collective spending for the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, Secret Service, U.S. Marshals Service, and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.” According to a 2007 analysis by The Washington Post, ICE “holds more inmates a night than Clarion hotels have guests, operates nearly as many vehicles as Greyhound has buses and flies more people each day than do many small U.S. airlines.” This gives some sense of how ludicrous it is to claim that we’re not enforcing the laws.
You Don’t Say
The moment that raised the most eyebrows across America probably came when some rich asshole, who shouts at the TV when SNL is on, has waged an endless series of wars with public and private figures on social media, freaks out when media outlets run unflattering photos of him and has held a decades-long grudge over one writer calling him a “short-fingered vulgarian,” faced the American people and said, “the time for small thinking is over. The time for trivial fights is behind us.”
That was the only laugh-line of the evening.
He's gonna create a task force to go after immigrants, kinda like what Nazi Germany did.
Jeff Sessions, the new AG, was outed as meeting with a Russian during and election, which he lied about under oath.
‘Oh you meant THOSE Russians’: Twitter hammers Jeff Sessions after recusal press conference
Jeff Sessions speaks to CNN (screen grab)
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Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Thursday recused himself from any investigation into the 2016 presidential campaign, following a report published Wednesday indicating he failed to disclose meetings with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during his Senate confirmation hearing in January.
The move comes after a growing number of Congressional leaders from both parties called for his recusal from investigations into the the rich asshole campaign, with some Democratic leaders demanding his resignation as AG. Thursday morning, Sessions maintained he had “not met with any Russians at any time to discuss any political campaign,” and some rich asshole expressed continued confidence in his AG pic.
During his press conference, Sessions insisted he was already planning on recusing himself from investigations involving the the rich asshole campaign prior to reports of his interactions with Kislyak. He also repeatedly insisted he could not recall specifics of his meeting with the ambassador.
During his press conference, Sessions insisted he was already planning on recusing himself from investigations involving the the rich asshole campaign prior to reports of his interactions with Kislyak. He also repeatedly insisted he could not recall specifics of his meeting with the ambassador.
The internet did not take Sessions’ hedging kindly.
Sessions remembering quite a bit about this meeting he didn't remember well before it appeared in the news twitter.com/ddale8/status/…
#Sessions sounds like a teenager trying to explain to his mom how the tv got broke while she was at work #idontrecall#mymemoryisfuzzy
Jeff Sessions makes me long for the days of being disgusted by @KellyannePolls feet on the couch.
Simpler times.
Jeff Sessions on meeting with Russian ambassador: "I don't recall having met him. I mean, it's possible." pic.twitter.com/OS0jY5zvQm
America: Did you meet with Russian ambassadors?!
Jeff Sessions: What's Russia? pic.twitter.com/ZJ3oouOsZE
Top Bush ethics lawyer: Russia could have blackmail on Sessions, and he must resign
Jeff Sessions. Win McNamee/Getty Images
President George W. Bush's top ethics lawyer told Business Insider on Thursday that while it was "debatable" whether Attorney General Jeff Sessions perjured himself during his Senate confirmation hearing, he must resign.
Richard Painter, a professor at the University of Minnesota Law School who was the chief White House ethics lawyer from 2005 to 2007, added the latest Russia-related White House firestorm could leave Sessions open to the risk of "blackmailing."
"The thing with Sessions is that the Russians almost certainly have a recording of these conversations or detailed notes about the conversations," he said.
Painter continued: "And so, they've got something over Sessions. Sessions will be asked what was said in these conversations. And if that doesn't match what the Russians have in their records ... then they've got him, and they have this over him for the rest of his term. We have no idea of knowing whether we're in that situation, but it's just way too high a risk."
With what is now known about Sessions' conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, Painter said he doesn't think the attorney general "could effectively run that department."
Wednesday night reports about a pair of conversations between Sessions and Kislyak sparked uproar, with a number of Democratic politicians calling for the attorney general to resign, while others, including prominent Republicans, called for him to recuse himself from any investigation involving President some rich asshole's ties to Russia or the country's influence in the 2016 presidential election. In a Thursday press conference, Sessions announced he would recuse himself from any investigation that involved the the rich asshole campaign.
Sessions told the Senate Judiciary Committee in his confirmation hearing that he had no contact with Russian officials during the campaign. The answer under question came during an exchange with Democratic Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota.
"If there is any evidence that anyone affiliated with the the rich asshole campaign communicated with the Russian government in the course of this campaign, what will you do?" Franken asked.
"Sen. Franken, I'm not aware of any of those activities," Sessions responded. "I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I did not have communications with the Russians, and I'm unable to comment on it.
Franken did not ask Sessions whether he specifically spoke with Russian operatives, but Sessions, in answering an unrelated question, said he did not have any communications with "the Russians."
Sessions' allies have insisted he did not mislead the committee because he did not believe that those conversations, held in his capacity, they said, as a senior Armed Services Committee member, were relevant to the question. Opponents say Sessions may have perjured himself by not mentioning those two conversations with Kislyak.
Painter, who backed Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in the general election, said "he certainly misled Congress" with that answer.
"You expose yourself to criminal prosecution by doing that," Painter explained.
Painter tweeted Wednesday night that "misleading the Senate in sworn testimony about one['s] own contacts with the Russians is a good way to go to jail."
He compared it to the circumstances that played out around Richard Kleindienst, an attorney general for President Richard Nixon. In 1972, Kleindienst, then acting attorney general, appeared before the Senate Judiciary committee for a confirmation hearing. He was asked about White House interference in an antitrust suit against International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation, and whether he ever spoke with anyone in the administration about the case.
He said he did not, which was not true, as Painter outlined in a New York Times op-ed. When it was uncovered that Kleindienst, after being confirmed as attorney general, was not truthful, he said he believed the questions asked during his hearing were limited to a particular time period.
Sessions. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas
But that excuse didn't pass muster with the special prosecutor who was investigating the Watergate scandal, and Kleindienst was forced to resign. He later pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of failing to provide accurate information to Congress.
Another situation that provided some parallels surrounded Bush's attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, who resigned from office following a controversy over the firings of several federal prosecutors. Democratic lawmakers believed he made misleading statements about the firings before Congress, which led him to resign.
"We've already had Flynn get sacked over misleading the vice president of the United States about his contacts with the Russians," Painter told Business Insider. "So this is a pretty serious situation. Whether it amounts to perjury or not, I think it's much more debatable."
"You know, I think in terms of the truth telling involved, it falls within the same category as the Kleindienst example I discussed in the NYT op-ed," he continued. "And that you know the [President Bill] Clinton lying about his sex life — the difference between this and Clinton is that it's obviously so much more important than whether the president had sex with an intern, because we're talking about the Russians and spying activities within the United States, much more important. So, you know that's a factor as to whether he's fit to serve as attorney general."
During his Thursday press conference, Sessions attempted to clear up some questions about his contacts with Kislyak.
In detailing the meeting, which he said he didn't recall most of the details of, Sessions said he discussed terrorism and Ukraine, adding that the discussion surrounding the country "got to be a little bit of a testy conversation."
On why he didn't mention the conversations during his answer in the confirmation hearing, Sessions said he was "taken aback" by the new information Franken had presented in his question.
"This allegation that a surrogate — and I had been called a surrogate for some rich asshole — had been meeting continuously with Russian officials, and that's what I — it struck me very hard, and that's what I focused my answer on," he said. "And in retrospect, I should have slowed down and said, 'But I did meet one Russian official a couple of times, and that would be the ambassador.'"
The explanation that the conversations were under the scope of Sessions' role on the Armed Services Committee, and not as a top the rich asshole adviser, seemed off to Painter. The Washington Post reported none of the other 25 members of the committee met with Kislyak.
"I don't think it's routine to have members of the Armed Services Committee talking to the Russian ambassador," Painter said. "If I were the chairman of the committee I wouldn't want individual senators talking to the Russian ambassador about committee business."
AP Exclusive: DHS report disputes threat from banned nations
WASHINGTON (AP) — Analysts at the Homeland Security Department's intelligence arm found insufficient evidence that citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries included in President some rich asshole's travel ban pose a terror threat to the United States.
A draft document obtained by The Associated Press concludes that citizenship is an "unlikely indicator" of terrorism threats to the United States and that few people from the countries the rich asshole listed in his travel ban have carried out attacks or been involved in terrorism-related activities in the U.S. since Syria's civil war started in 2011.
the rich asshole cited terrorism concerns as the primary reason he signed the sweeping temporary travel ban in late January, which also halted the U.S. refugee program. A federal judge in Washington state blocked the government from carrying out the order earlier this month. the rich asshole said Friday a new edict would be announced soon. The administration has been working on a new version that could withstand legal challenges.
Homeland Security spokeswoman Gillian Christensen on Friday did not dispute the report's authenticity, but said it was not a final comprehensive review of the government's intelligence.
"While DHS was asked to draft a comprehensive report on this issue, the document you're referencing was commentary from a single intelligence source versus an official, robust document with thorough interagency sourcing," Christensen said. "The ... report does not include data from other intelligence community sources. It is incomplete."
The Homeland Security report is based on unclassified information from Justice Department press releases on terrorism-related convictions and attackers killed in the act, State Department visa statistics, the 2016 Worldwide Threat Assessment from the U.S. intelligence community and the State Department Country Reports on Terrorism 2015.
The three-page report challenges the rich asshole's core claims. It said that of 82 people the government determined were inspired by a foreign terrorist group to carry out or try to carry out an attack in the United States, just over half were U.S. citizens born in the United States. The others were from 26 countries, led by Pakistan, Somalia, Bangladesh, Cuba, Ethiopia, Iraq and Uzbekistan. Of these, only Somalia and Iraq were among the seven nations included in the ban.
Of the other five nations, one person each from Iran, Sudan and Yemen was also involved in those terrorism cases, but none from Syria. It did not say if any were Libyan.
The report also found that terrorist organizations in Iran, Libya, Somalia and Sudan are regionally focused, while groups in Iraq, Syria and Yemen do pose a threat to the U.S.
The seven countries were included in a law President Barack Obama signed in 2015 that updated visa requirements for foreigners who had traveled to those countries.
Christensen said the countries were also selected in part because they lacked the ability to properly vet their citizens and don't cooperate with U.S. efforts to screen people hoping to come to the U.S.
The report was prepared as part of an internal review the rich asshole requested after his executive order was blocked by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. It was drafted by staff of the Homeland Security Department's Intelligence and Analysis branch at the direction of its acting leader, David Glawe.
White House spokesman Michael Short said this was not the full report that the rich asshole had requested. He said he believes "the intel community is combining resources to put together a comprehensive report using all available sources, not just open sources, and which is driven by data, not politics."
The intelligence document was circulated beyond Homeland Security.
The draft document reflects the tensions between the president's political appointees and the civil servants tasked with carrying out the rich asshole's ambitious and aggressive agenda. the rich asshole has repeatedly complained about leaks meant to undercut his policies and suggested he does not trust holdovers from the Obama administration.
the rich asshole originally said the ban was necessary to overhaul the vetting system for both refugees and would-be foreign visitors, saying that terrorists may try to exploit weaknesses to gain access to the United States. The order sparked chaos, outrage and widespread protests, with travelers detained at airports and panicked families searching for relatives.
But several courts quickly intervened and the 9th Circuit ultimately upheld a ruling blocking the ban and challenged the administration's claim that it was motivated by terrorism fears.
the rich asshole's ban temporarily barred citizens from the seven countries from coming to the United States for three months. The order also temporarily shut down the U.S. refugee program for four months and indefinitely banned anyone from Syria.
A senior administration official told the AP on Sunday that a draft of the revised order will target those same seven countries. The official would not be named discussing the document before it is made public.
In a speech to the Conservative Political Action Committee Friday, the rich asshole reiterated his claims on terrorism.
"We are going to keep radical Islamic terrorists the hell out of our country," the rich asshole said.
He said he singled out the seven countries because they had already been deemed a security concern by the Obama administration.
___
Intelligence document available at http://apne.ws/2lSKNUo
And of course, no 45 blamed everyone else for it.
And of course, no 45 blamed everyone else for it.
the rich asshole denounces ‘total witch hunt’, after his attorney general removes himself from Russia investigation
Sir Patrick Stewart: I’m applying for US citizenship to ‘fight and oppose’ the the rich asshole administration
Joy Behar and Sir Patrick Stewart
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British citizen Sir Patrick Stewart on Thursday told The View that he is applying for U.S. citizenship to “fight” and “oppose” the some rich asshole administration.
Speaking with Stewart about his upcoming film “Logan,” co-host Joy Behar asked about a tweet Stewart sent while visiting Washington D.C. last month.
Stewart said he was in the nation’s capital to visit “three different friends who are kind of Washington insiders,” noting he and his wife “wanted to ask them, ‘What do we do? What do we do?’”
“The first night we were in Washington, I had the worst night’s sleep for years and years and years,” Stewart admitting, adding that he looked outside and realized the the rich asshole presidency might explain his restlessness. The X-Men star called it a “fairly innocent tweet,” insisting he “did not directly insult your president.”
“Not mine,” Whoopi Goldberg chimed in.
“Well, he’s not mine either,” Stewart pointed out. When Behar asked if the English actor would like to take the rich asshole off American’s hands, Stewart lamented, “We have our own problems”—specifically referencing last year’s UK referendum to withdrawal from the European Union
“I’m not a citizen,” Stewart continued. “However, there is, maybe it’s the only good thing, as the result of this election: I am now applying for citizenship. Because I want to be an American too.”
“All of my friends in Washington said, ‘There is one thing you can do. Fight, fight, oppose, oppose,’” Stewart concluded.
The decision by Jeff Sessions leaves the the rich asshole administration at the mercy of an Obama appointee who will decide whether to appoint special prosecutor
PUBLISHED : Friday, 03 March, 2017, 10:26am
UPDATED : Friday, 03 March, 2017, 10:26am
COMMENTS: 2
US President some rich asshole has branded the decision of his attorney general Jeff Sessions to recuse himself from investigations into Russia’s alleged meddling in the US election as the result of a “total witch hunt” by Democrats, even after Sessions himself said it was the “right and just” thing to do.
For the second time in less than a month, a key member of the rich asshole’s team has been hobbled by communications with the Russian ambassador to the United States.
Sessions called a press conference on Thursday to announce that he was following the advice of senior Justice Department advisers by withdrawing from oversight of any investigations into Russian meddling in last year’s presidential race. He made the announcement just hours after the rich asshole said Sessions should not recuse himself.
Sessions’ decision now leaves the administration at the mercy of acting deputy attorney general Dana Boente - an Obama appointee - who will decide whether to appoint a special prosecutor to look into the the rich asshole campaign’s reported links to Russia.
Late Wednesday, the Washington Post revealed that Sessions had met Ambassador Sergey Kislyak twice last year, and omitted that from his testimony at his confirmation hearing in January. Instead, he told the hearing that he “did not have communications with the Russians”.
the rich asshole, however, stood behind Sessions, one of his earliest supporters.
The real story is all of the illegal leaks of classified and other information. It is a total witch hunt!
“Jeff Sessions is an honest man. He did not say anything wrong. He could have stated his more accurately, but it was clearly not intentional,” the rich asshole said in a statement released Thursday evening. “This whole narrative is a way of saving face for Democrats losing an election that everyone thought they were supposed to win. The Democrats are overplaying their hand. They lost the election and now, they have lost their grip on reality. The real story is all of the illegal leaks of classified and other information. It is a total witch hunt!”
The fast-moving developments unsettled a the rich asshole administration still working to put behind it the resignation last month of national security adviser Michael Flynn — forced out for lying about his contacts with Kislyak — and left some analysts wondering whether the recusal was enough to ensure an honest probe of Russian-the rich asshole connections.
“This needs to be handled by career prosecutors reporting to a special prosecutor,” said Richard Painter, the White House ethics officer during the administration of President George W. Bush. “It’s way too explosive to be handled by political appointees.”
Members of Congress also expressed concern about whether Justice Department officials could be relied on to help investigations into Russian election meddling being carried out by the Senate and House of Representatives intelligence committees.
Representative Adam Schiff, the Californian who is the senior Democrat on the House committee, expressed dissatisfaction with FBI Director James Comey’s appearance before the committee Thursday, the first witness the committee has called in its probe.
“In order for us to do our investigation in a thorough and credible way, we’re going to need the FBI to fully cooperate, to be willing to tell us the length and breadth of any counterintelligence investigations they are conducting,” Schiff said. “At this point, the director was not willing to do that.”
What role Sessions might have played in Comey’s reluctance to offer details was uncertain, Schiff said. “It was unclear whether that decision was a decision he was making on his own or a decision that he is making in consultation with the Department of Justice,” Schiff said.
In announcing he would no longer play a role in probes into links between Russia and the rich asshole’s campaign, Sessions insisted that testimony he’d given to the Senate Judiciary Committee in January was accurate. But he said his staff at the Department of Justice had concluded “that since I had involvement with the campaign, I should not be involved in any campaign investigation.”
“I have studied the rules and considered their comments and evaluation. I believe those recommendations are right and just,” he said.
It was unknown whether Sessions consulted the rich asshole before announcing his recusal. But shortly before, the president announced that he had “total” confidence in his attorney general, and he should not recuse himself. When asked whether Sessions had testified truthfully to the Senate Judiciary Committee, the rich asshole responded, “I think he probably did.”
At the news conference where he announced his recusal, Sessions described a meeting in his office in September. He said he had only a vague memory of his conversations with Kislyak, though he did recall mentioning that he’d been to Russia on a church mission trip and Kislyak had replied that he wasn’t a religious man. Sessions said two members of his staff had been present for the meeting, but he did not identify them.
As the attorney general, Sessions runs the Department of Justice, which oversees the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The FBI is at the center of the probes into Russian attempts to influence the election.
A Media Strategist Breaks Down President the rich asshole’s Speech To Congress
Expectations were low for President some rich asshole going into tonight’s speech before the Congress. He had yet to successfully pivot to a Presidential tone. His inaugural address was dark and pugilistic. His executive orders had been merciless and poorly carried out.
the rich asshole set the expectations for the speech with his preview interview on Fox and Friends in the morning. He chose a friendly, non-confrontational forum where he could be relaxed. His surprising self-effacing tone, both verbally and physically, was new, something not seen in him to date. In the interview he graded the work he had done in his first 40 days in office with an A; he graded his communication of his message with a C.
When I saw that interview I knew that Tuesday night's speech was going to be a crafted reset of his presidential messaging style – to demonstrate to his critics in the media and the skeptical public that he could be "Presidential."
There is a big difference between a performance artist and an actor:
- An actor uses discipline and craft to bring a script to life, endowing those words with parts of his persona in the process; a performance artist crafts his of her own persona.
- Acting is putting one’s persona in service. Performance art is serving only your persona.
- Acting takes practice. Performance art takes chutzpa. They can work together but the performer must be willing to serve the actor.
President the rich asshole is a very accomplished performance artist. He is able to command very large audiences with the force of his persona. He is at his best when he is off script, off the cuff, irreverent, politically incorrect and thereby seen as "authentic." His platform style in those moments is similar to a stand-up comedian.
But a prepared speech before the joint houses of congress requires more than a performance artist. It demands an actor or an orator to deliver it — and President the rich asshole is neither.
Many a great actor has saved a mediocre play but never has a great play saved a mediocre actor. The writing in tonight’s speech had soaring moments that were well written, but for me, the President’s performance many times didn’t live up to what was on the page.
That is not to say that he wasn’t well rehearsed. His cadence was measured. His tone was calm. His demeanor was even. His gestures were limited (at least in the opening minutes).
Clearly he and his advisers had thought about every part of his presentation – even the color palate. Gone was his signature red tie. Tonight, President the rich asshole’s tie was blue with white stripes. Whereas red projects power and excitement, blue projects masculine corporate competence. And clearly with matching blue ties, the Vice President and Speaker of the House were deliberately staged as well.
After being announced at the door, the President’s entrance into the House Chamber was certainly better than his on-camera walk through the Capitol to the inauguration platform. This time he knew he was on camera every moment and used it to exude confidence. And it wasn’t an easy room. The Democrats didn’t rush to the aisles to shake his hand. They stood properly when he was announced and then promptly sat down and did not applaud.
When he was introduced on the platform he was calm and not overly mannered. But when he began his speech I noticed that he was glued to the teleprompter panels. It took him a full 8 minutes to look at the audience. Clearly this night was about the written word and unfortunately the President is not a great reader. So, the speech was constructed with a series of short sentences as the President’s limited and unvaried speaking tone doesn’t lend itself to complex clauses and parenthetical language.
The key to teleprompter reading is how it is formatted. What an actor sees on the teleprompter can dictate the rhythm and tone of how they speak. In formatting one must consider the length of a phrase, where to put spaces and line breaks, what words are underlined, bolded, italicized, ALL CAPS or ALL FOUR. For example, when a speaker lacks varied vocal tone, shorter sentences work better.
The President delivered what was on the teleprompter with very little ad libbing – especially for him. Performers need a lot of applause and it was clear that the Republicans knew that. They applauded at every line in the beginning, so much so that I thought they had been instructed to do so.
And the speech rolled on fairly predictably until one moment that will be remembered as the defining moment of this speech – when the President introduced Carryn Owens, the widow of Senior Chief Petty Officer Ryan Owens, the navy seal who was killed in action Yemen last week during a raid that the rich asshole authorized, and which sources say yielded no actionable intelligence. That moment was made a major impact on members of Congress and audiences watching at home. In that moment everyone in the chamber and watching the screen was unified in their support of Mrs. Owens and some rich asshole appeared truly "presidential," in the opinion of some notable pundits.
But when the President congratulated himself for “setting a record” for the length of sustained applause, he was diminished by his ego. And that moment of self-congratulation took the power away from the finish of the speech. An actor must not ever stop to congratulate himself for a great moment while he’s in it, that’s the audience’s job.
The ending of the speech had soaring rhetoric but was flatly delivered. The big moment before it had eclipsed the ending and the self-congratulating performer had peeked too early. All in all, I’d give the President’s performance a B minus. But, the President’s opposition must take that stunning emotional moment very seriously because, if President the rich asshole can learn to string a series of those moments together and suppress his self-congratulatory ego, the Democrats could be hearing another seven of those speeches.
some rich asshole’s Call For Millions To Rally Fizzles
Events around the nation draw the few and the proud.
X
President some rich asshole’s supporters held rallies across the country Monday in response to a tweet he sent Saturday:
Images from the rallies show many events had crowds of a few hundred supporters or less.
In Atlanta, about 250 people gathered to sing and chant in support of the president, according to The Atlanta Journal Constitution.
Reuters notes that about 60 people gathered in the rain for a pro-the rich asshole rally in Brea, California, and chanted, “Build the wall!” and “God bless America! God bless some rich asshole!”
JUSTIN SULLIVAN VIA GETTY IMAGES
JUSTIN SULLIVAN VIA GETTY IMAGES
RICK WILKING / REUTERS
Images of other rallies were shared across social media:
A second set of pro-the rich asshole rallies is scheduled for Saturday.
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